SF's Asian Garden for Everyone

The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden.

Our community garden sits on the land of the former Diana Street Farm, the last operating farm in San Francisco, which was still operating as recently as the late 1980s. The one-acre lot sits atop a Caltrain tunnel and is surrounded by single-family homes and a dense population of diverse residents, including many Asians. Site features include an urban cul de sac, staircase and views of Candlestick Park and San Bruno Mountain.

The land has been made a community site through an agreement between AsianWeek Foundation and CalTrain. Portions of the site are planned to be developed for housing as part of a long-term sustainability plan for the community garden and the neighborhood.

The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden is one of San Francisco’s newest and largest urban gardens. It brings together a network of community groups and residents around policy issues of environmental sustainability and cultural diversity, and healthy living activities and wholesome eating practices.

Our garden is a living showcase for sharing gardening design, techniques and plantings that reflect Asian heritage and the local Asian American community. The one-acre plot is in the Bayview District in the southeast part of San Francisco.

The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden serves over 100 regularly participating families and has been grown through the loving and hard work of hundreds of additional volunteers. Participants come from all backgrounds and ages. Most regular gardeners are limited-English-proficient Chinese immigrant women seniors, while most volunteers come from youth and professional groups.

The garden’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood is among the lowest income and most underserved in San Francisco where health disparities are among the highest. One of the major demographic shifts in the area is that Asians are now the largest population group. In 2010, the area’s supervisorial district was 37% Asian, 23% white and 20% African American, with a 21% Latino population.

Florence Fang immigrated to San Francisco in 1960 with her husband John T. C. Fang. She devoted her life to raising her three sons – James, Teddy and Douglas – and to contributing to her new home city of San Francisco, and her adopted country of the United States.

Mrs. Fang and her family opened a successful local printing business and became publishers of major newspapers in San Francisco including the Young China Daily News, AsianWeek, Mission Life, The Independent Newspaper Group, and the San Francisco Examiner. Mrs. Fang and her family also operated Chinatown’s largest restaurant and became prominent leaders in the community.

Among her many public service roles, Mrs. Fang has served on the National U.S. Small Business Commission, California Commission on the Status of Women, and the San Francisco Film Commission. As a result of her own life experiences, Ms. Fang has particularly focused her life on education and American and Chinese cultural exchange.

Press/Clips

Thank you to Kontent Films for capturing the beginnings of the first Asian community garden in San Francisco. http://www.kontentfilms.com/

Interview w/ Johnny Chen and Ted Fang @ KTVU

AsianWeek Foundation is almost done with the first phase of our Asian Community Garden, land preparation. We need your help to finish mulching the one acre site. After the mulching is complete, we can move on to our building phase. Which means planter boxes will finally be available, and plants can begin to grow!

First Harvest at Florence Fang Asian Community Garden

San Francisco, CA (April 17, 2014) - AsianWeek Foundation, along with community leaders and elected officials broke ground today on the city's first ever Asian Community Garden located at the cul-de-sac at Williams Ave. and Diana St. in the Bayview District.

San Francisco, CA (April 17, 2014) - AsianWeek Foundation, along with community leaders and elected officials broke ground today on the city's first ever Asian Community Garden located at the cul-de-sac at Williams Ave. and Diana St. in the Bayview District.

Join the people, produce and land that make up The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden! Video compilation by MrsLi, Hui Zhen 李惠貞, neighborhood resident.

San Francisco, CA (April 17, 2014) - AsianWeek Foundation, along with community leaders and elected officials broke ground today on the city's first ever Asian Community Garden located at the cul-de-sac at Williams Ave. and Diana St. in the Bayview District.

AARP AAPI Hero Finalist Johnny Chen is a Staff Community Garden Manager for the Florence Fang Asian Community Garden in San Francisco. Johnny asks: “How else can we help seniors contribute to the community?"